A Beautiful View

A Beautiful View (2015)

by Daniel MacIvor

Directed by Jane Walker

Featuring Kerri Woloszyn, Erica Hoiss

Music by The Mariachi Ghost

We need to create a narrative of our lives that holds together, a story that makes sense. We revise it, until we get it right. Until we obtain what Daniel MacIvor calls a beautiful view. The beauty of the view is, like all else, fleeting. The two woman in this dramatic comedy struggle to make sense of their relationship. If only the stories they told would stop colliding with each other. They float through their unsteady fictions to the original sounds of Winnipeg’s Mariachi Ghost.

“4 STARS. Take a great script and add fine actors. What do you get? A Beautiful View. Erica Hoiss delivers one of the most effortless performances I’ve seen in years: complex, charming and utterly compelling. She is a perfect counterpoint to Winnipeg Fringe veteran Kerri Wolosyzn, who carries much of the comedy of the piece, deadpan. There are many reasons to laugh, but I also found this the most moving Fringe play I have seen this year. Who are these women? Lovers? Friends? Exes? Enemies? It turns out they are as much in the dark as we are. The play beautifully explores the tangled nature of love (or whatever we may call it), without becoming predictable or sentimental. Lies are told. In theatre as in life, none are more painful than the ones we tell ourselves. This thoroughly entertaining production will get under your skin, a rarity in a festival too often characterized by easy laughs and sensationalism.” — Shawna Dempsey, CBC

“4 STARS. It’s ironic that a dramedy about a messy relationship gets such clean, excellent work from local company Snakeskin Jacket. Clipping along with Canadian playwright Daniel MacIvor’s distinctive back-and-forth banter, two women examine their years’ long attraction to each other, in all its forms. Their compared notes mismatch as much as their personalities, but there’s a genuine spark drawing them together, even if it occasionally burns. The script can only suggest that spark; the two leads Erica Hoiss and Kerri Woloszyn have a ball keeping it alive and glowing through the hour-long piece. They bring some honest, natural, lovely work to their intimate venue, with Jane Walker’s confident direction feeling out the stage’s corners along with the relationship’s complexities. Every moment is genuine, despite both characters claiming to be total liars. Maybe that’s why they’re drawn to each other? It should definitely be enough to draw you to the show.” — Matt TenBruggencate, Winnipeg Free Press